In this digital age, how do institutions know what documents to accept and from whom? This year's school closures, distance learning, online education, and other upheavals have made it even more critical for institutions to ensure that they are accepting official academic records from valid sources. Typically, receiving official documents…

California's information about opportunities and outcomes in early learning and care, TK-12 schools, colleges, social services, and employment is currently disconnected. A longitudinal data system can be a powerful tool that allows California to identify bright spots, inequities, and roadblocks in our educational system, especially for students of…

We often have little evidence of success to take to stakeholders in the preliminary stages of restoration projects. However, presenting initial monitoring data can allow for impactful science communication and stakeholder engagement around the early progress of restoration. We use reforestation monitoring in the Paulins Kill watershed to highlight…

Over the last decade, state efforts to build stronger data infrastructure and integrate data about early childhood services have continued to grow. A stronger data infrastructure supports states in more easily linking data across programs, which in turn makes it easier to analyze and use that data to answer important policy questions. An Early…

In this paper, we present the TED Talks dataset which exposes all metadata and the actual transcripts of available TED talks as structured Linked Data. The TED talks collection is composed of more than 1800 talks, along with 35?000 transcripts in over 30 languages, related to a wide range of topics. In this regard, TED talks metadata available in…

There is demand among policy-makers for the use of state education longitudinal data systems, yet laws and policies regulating data disclosure limit access to such data, and security concerns and risks remain high. Well-developed synthetic datasets that statistically mimic the relations among the variables in the data from which they were derived,…

In December 2008, with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and in partnership with the Data Quality Campaign, the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) hosted a meeting of the West's key leaders in building state-wide integrated longitudinal data systems. Such data systems are essential to developing a better…

The world of policymaking on the campuses of colleges and universities is messy, ambiguous, and contested. In this complex environment, which Kingdon (2003) has aptly called a "policy soup," the role of institutional research is often not only to provide answers to existing policy questions but to produce information to help transform…

This article describes how E-Mail Alerts and RSS feeds can be helpful tools for busy distance education administrators by helping them to efficiently sort through the research and news information that is now available. These tools and their respective filters and aggregators make it possible for busy distance education administrators to stay…

Outlines the current legal structure of the European geographic information system (GIS) database industry, particularly in the area of copyright protection; critiques the impending Commission of the European Communities directive; and emphasizes the need for global consensus on the legal structure's ability to protect and regulate the flow of…

Describes the components, collaborators, and services of INFOTERRA, an environmental information exchange network designed to facilitate the exchange of information among countries and to promote knowledge with countries of the international environmental situation. (MDH)

This 15-minute videotape introduces viewers to ERIC and emphasizes ERIC's connection to the electronic information highway. Topics covered include (1) the basic structure of the ERIC system, including the 16 subject-specialized clearinghouses; (2) benefits offered, including publications, the ERIC database, information quality, and the ERIC…

This description of the development of the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) compact disc by two companies, SilverPlatter and ORI, Inc., provides background information on ERIC and the ERIC database, discusses reasons for choosing to put the ERIC database on compact discs, and describes the formulation of an ERIC CD-ROM team as part of…

Discusses the events that led to the National Archives policy of preserving magnetic tapes of data generated by federal agencies and accumulating these databases as research tools. The current methods of preservation and access are described, and technical problems and archival concerns about standards are identified. (12 notes with references)…

Background: Disability research data often exist in the form of individual records located within discrete registers that may extend across sensitive political boundaries. Method: This paper discusses the opportunities and challenges associated with using linked health and administrative data for disability research, with examples from research…